United States prosecutors have laid charges in two separate cases against nine people who founded or promoted a pair of cryptocurrency companies alleged to be Ponzi schemes that netted $8.4 million from investors. On Dec. 14 the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York unsealed the indictment, alleging the purported crypto mining and trading companies IcomTech and Forcount promised investors “guaranteed daily returns” that could double their investment in six months. In reality, prosecutors say both firms were using the money from later investors to pay earlier investors, while other funds were spent on promoting the companies …

The United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a claim against eight individuals associated with Atlas Trading, a Discord-based forum. The forum’s co-founders, affiliated podcasters and Youtubers are being alleged of stock manipulation. The claim was filed with the U.S. District Court Southern District of Texas on Dec. 13. The regulator accuses the defendants of violating Section 17(a) of the Securities Act and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act. According to the SEC, bloggers made no less than $100 million by acquiring substantial positions in some securities, recommending those stocks to their followers and then selling their shares into …

Since Cointelegraph Markets Pro launched — bringing professional crypto market intelligence to every investor — the platform has helped thousands of subscribers to better understand the opportunities and threats inherent in the world of crypto investing and trading. In this brief, we want to draw attention to some highlights since the platform’s launch, including a critical look at a variety of backtested strategies that the Markets Pro team tracks. Cointelegraph Markets Pro consists of two unique research features — VORTECS™ Score and NewsQuakes™ — in addition to a wide variety of market performance metrics and access to a vibrant community …

The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA), the council of Canada's provincial and territorial securities regulators, on Dec. 13 issued an update to crypto trading platforms operating in the country. The CSA said that the authority has been reinforcing its approach to the supervision of crypto trading platforms by expanding existing requirements. According to the statement, all crypto trading firms operating in Canada — both local and foreign ones — have to comply with newly expanded terms, which ban them from offering margin or leverage trading services to any Canadian clients. The expanded terms also require crypto exchange services providers in Canada …

A golden cross pattern on the charts excites crypto traders for its promises of profitable opportunities ahead, largely due to its impressive success rate in traditional markets. The golden cross tends to preceded sustained uptrends in contrast with the bearish death cross pattern. For instance, since 1970, the S&P 500 has been returning about 15% gains on average in less than a year after a golden cross's occurrence. The golden cross's record in the benchmark crypto asset Bitcoin (BTC) is similarly impressive. Notably, the indicator has appeared seven times on Bitcoin daily charts since 2010, out of which five have …

2022 was a near-unprecedented year of extremes and black swan events for the crypto market, and now that the year is about to wrap up, analysts are reflecting on the lessons learned and attempting to identify the trends which may point to bullish price action in 2023. The collapse of Terra Luna, Three Arrows Capital and FTX created a credit crunch, a severe reduction in capital inflows and an increased threat that additional major centralized exchanges could collapse. Despite the severity of the market downturn, a few positives have emerged. Data shows long-term hodlers and smaller-sized wallets are actively accumulating …

Since their inception, cryptocurrencies have seen rapid growth and widespread market adoption, as evidenced by the assets tied to crypto assets that have started to appear in the portfolios and trading methods of numerous asset managers. The process of purchasing and selling cryptocurrencies to profit is known as cryptocurrency trading. Trading in cryptocurrencies can be defined in terms of its objective, mode of operation and trading approach. For example, the asset being exchanged, or cryptocurrency, is the goal of cryptocurrency trading. The manner in which cryptocurrencies are traded depends on the type of transaction, such as futures, options or perpetual …

Crypto price action has been rough over the past few months, but a few green shoots are finally beginning to emerge. While Bitcoin (BTC) remains in a downtrend, its price has recently found support at the $17,000 level, and ping-pong price action in the $16,700–$17,300 range appears to be allowing traders to pursue some interesting setups in a few altcoins. Let’s take a quick peek at some enticing patterns showing up on the weekly time frame. Time for Litecoin’s halving hopium? As a fork of Bitcoin, Litecoin (LTC) tends to turn bullish several months before its reward halving takes place, …

Cryptocurrency trading firm Amber Group is putting its expansion plans on hold despite the FTX contagion having “no disruption” to its daily operations, according to a senior executive. Amber has scrapped plans to expand in Europe and the United States as a consequence of exposure to the now-defunct exchange FTX and will focus on institutional clients in Asia, according to managing partner Annabelle Huang. Huang also said that Amber has been forced to deprioritize its new metaverse project due the FTX contagion, the Financial Times reported on Dec. 9. Apart from ditching its expansion plans, the firm has reportedly been …

Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto are only used by 13.7% of Americans, but they generate more exchange volume than anyone else. The latest data compiled by exchange Huobi confirms that in 2022, the United States is the most “mature” crypto market. U.S., Vietnam lead the way on crypto Despite the heavy drawdowns in price for Bitcoin and altcoins this year, interest throughout the world remains “extremely active,” and the leaders may come as a surprise. In its latest annual report, Huobi Research, an affiliate of Huobi Global, revealed that the U.S. accounts for 9.2% of global centralized exchange (CEX) volume. When …

The crypto community appears to be having a ball with ChatGPT, a recently launched Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot created by research company OpenAI — using it for a multitude of applications including a trading bot, a crypto blog, and even an original song. The bot is a language interface tool that OpenAI says can interact “in a conversational way” and can be used to answer questions or assist in making almost anything it’s prompted to create, with some limitations. A user on Twitter posted their interaction with ChatGPT showing that from a simple prompt the tool created a basic trading …

Are margin and futures trading risky tools? While investors find margin trading and futures very attractive because of their potential returns, they should be cautious and consider all the risks before adopting them. Risks associated with margin trading Crypto margin trading is riskier than standard trading because of the leverage component, which may lose the investor more money than they held initially. Especially considering that cryptocurrencies are very volatile and unpredictable assets, the investor may have to provide extra funds to the collateral to avoid being forced to sell. Investors start paying interest on the loan they took up to …